The Hunt
by Accsidental Badger
Summary: Jeremy is confused, alone and discovering himself. Tyler is angry, scared and… discovering himself. Damon is… Well, he knows who he is and it isn't good. Jeremy/Damon, some Jeremy/Tyler. SLASH.


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**T H E **/** H U N T**

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**Disclaimer: **I don't own Vampire Diaries, or the characters. I am playing with them!

**Summary: **Jeremy is confused, alone, discovering himself. Tyler is angry, scared and… discovering himself. Damon is… Well, he knows who he is and it isn't good. Jeremy/Damon, some Jeremy/Tyler. SLASH.

A story following the events from S02x03 the way I see them going down. Includes other characters and couples, too, of course. =D

**Rating: **T for now, some content and chapters may be M but I shall mark them properly for youuu. Sexual scenes, violence, cursing, lots of blood, most likely.

**Author's Note: **Hello everyone! Hope you have a good time reading my first _Vampire Diaries _fic. I was watching the new season and thought… Come on, what the heck? Damon and Jeremy are so meant to be. So, I'm'a try and bring it to life for you guys. Drop a line, drop a review, let me know if I should continue.

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**Chapter I**

Mood Swings

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**The Night of The Carnival:**

"So, you were gonna' kill me, huh?"

"No."

"Oh? Carve stakes for fun?"

"Yes… I mean, no, I mean… I was." Jeremy's shoulders sank.

"It's cute that you think you could." Damon smirked.

Jeremy looked away from him. The silence overwhelmed them, and he felt as if he was sinking into it. With a deep breath, he tried to find something to say, but his mind was unwinding in ribbons and threads.

"Why is it everyone I love dies?"

He didn't know what he was expecting in answer. Damon only smirked, "You don't love them. You just… slept with them?" He raised an eyebrow, coyly dropping in the question.

"Not really." Jeremy mumbled.

They were sat facing each other in armchairs. The Old Salvatore house loomed above them with it's large, echoing ceilings and Centuary-old furniture. Jeremy was not looking at Damon, who, sat dangling his cup of whisky over the side of the armchair. The kid had said he laced it, which was annoying, he could have done with a drink.

He raised his head to look at Jeremy, who sat cross-legged across from him, hood up, head down. Maybe he could do with a drink too. How old was he again? Damon was pretty sure he was underage, then again, didn't he have that drug problem? He found himself chuckling to himself. Jeremy's head snapped up, as if on cue.

"What's funny?" His eyes studied the Vampire.

"Nothing," Damon put down his glass and leaned forward, the way a school councillor would as they tried to tie together words in their mind to give you a good story. Ironically, that's what Damon seemed to try to do. "You don't understand love. Why? Because I don't, and I've had a lot more of it than you. I doubt anyone does."

Jeremy frowned. He reached for the makeshift stake he had made, though he remembered when he had handed it over and sighed. "You don't have to lecture me, you sound like some teacher."

"Well, I am over one-hundred-and-fifty years old." Damon reminded him.

That was when it happened. Damon didn't even see it coming, or know where it came from. Jeremy shot up, and for a second, Damon thought that was it - the stupid kid was gonna' try and kill him - but Jeremy did nothing of the sort, only spoke. Hot, fast words, overflowing with emotion.

"It's not right, It's not fair! I never even knew them a long time, long enough to love. I could have spent eternity with Anna!" He was shouting now.

Damon sat back, edging away. "You're shouting at me? I believe it was _your_ Uncle who nearly killed us all."

Jeremy ignored him, all ready in full swing. He took a deep breath. "I don't even have pictures of Anna… A few old ones of Vickie but… Hell, do you guys even show up in pictures?" It was such a pathetic question, Damon almost felt his heart sink. He wanted to smile, but didn't, instead he stood up and took the boy's arm.

"You should go home."

"I said stop lecturing me! I don't need advice."

Damon gripped tighter. The anger vanished from Jeremy's face as Damon pulled him close. His eyes widened, and Damon noticed their colour for the first time. He rarely noticed colour, even with the sun on his back, threatening to burn. Was this what fear felt like? He had forgotten seeing it on someone's face. Maybe one day he could see it on Catherine's? He almost forgot himself, so he gripped even harder to make a point.

"I said you should go home." He repeated, now through gritted teeth. "Because if you don't, I'm likely to twist that little neck of yours and kill you again. Maybe that's some advice you'd wanna take, hm?"

Jeremy's hood fell. There was sweat on his forehead, tears in his eyes. He was a mess of nerves and sorrow. Damon pushed him away in disgust. "Now!" He shouted at the seeming-frozen teenager.

Jeremy obliged, though he tried not to run - that would make him look scared.

Damon watched him. He could have laughed if he wasn't so damn annoyed. What if he changed his mind, right now? He could feel it. If he just… flitted in front of him.. Grabbed him and…

The door clicked, and Jeremy was gone.

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Morning sun crept into the kitchen windows and filled the room. Jeremy sat on a stool, half eating cereal, half searching through a magazine. He wasn't really paying any attention to the contents, yet finding something entertaining tended to push his mind away from worrying about things, or wanting to die.

Anna's blood was long gone now… He'd just die. If not for the ring he would have died when Damon got at him. He didn't have a clue why he hadn't driven a stake through his heart the other night.

Elena passed him. He only looked up when he noticed the shadow.

"Hey. Y'okay Jer?"

"Mhm," He smiled, closing the magazine. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna… go down the bad path again. You won't have to check my pupils every morning anymore." He assured her.

Elena smiled. "Glad to hear it."

"How was your little trip with Damon, anyway?" Jeremy asked, a casual laugh in his voice.

Elena rolled her eyes. "Eventful."

"What were you doing? I thought you hated him."

"Yepp…" She trailed off, turning away to find a spoon. "But it was important… Family stuff. Alaric needed him to come and I'm mature enough to just ignore him."

There was an odd silence between them then. Jeremy listened to the far-away music from his earphones. They were only round his neck, though he kept them low, so he could barely make out the words.

"Why were you at Damon's?" She asked abruptly. When he looked over she wasn't looking at him, just pouring cereal into a bowl.

"It's Stefan's too, isn't it?"

"Okay, defensive. You questioned me." Elena tried to joke it off, heading over to the counter with her bowl. She sat near him. "It's just odd, you know? He killed you, Jeremy." Elena had this horrible way of suddenly turning deadly serious. It was all in her eyes. She could do it mid-sentence, and it never failed to make Jeremy tense.

"He's a bad person… Well, dead person. I know. He's a dick." He mumbled idly. "He laughs at things which hurt people, he threatens people…"

Elena looked relieved.

"What?" Jeremy asked. "You expected me to praise him for killing me?"

"No!" Elena snapped.

"Besides, he only did it because I was wearing the ring."

Elena froze. Damon's words from the porch were fresh needles in her mind.

"_I need you to be honest. When you snapped Jeremy's neck, did you know he was wearing the ring?"_

_A pause._

"_No."_

How could she rightly tell Jeremy that someone wanted him dead? What if he wanted it, too, after all that had happened?

"Maybe…" She mumbled. "But don't fall for it. People just seem to have this odd way of… been drawn in to Damon. It's all fake." She sighed. "He wants the easy route, he's unstable, he'll use you to get to me."

That was it, the snapping feeling ran through him. He pushed his bowl away, jumped from his stool and stormed off past her. "Yeah, because it's always about you, isn't it?" He heard himself half growl.

"Jeremy, I didn't mean-"

He heard Elena jump up too, so he snapped the kitchen door shut behind him to give him enough time to get out of the house. He wanted to get to school, and be normal, and not worry about Damon, Tyler, Anna, Vickie, Vampires…

The front door shut behind him. It was a bright day, as ever. The sun filtered between clouds, forming small rows of sunlight which he stepped out into. It warmed his back, and he had to squint to see the street which arched long in front of him. Yeah, he could do this, he could be normal…

At least he had Tyler.


End file.
